Kathryn Gilbey has worked in the field of Education for the past thirteen years in the Northern Territory. In an earlier life she was the Artistic Director of an Aboriginal Youth Theatre Company in Adelaide, and freelance Writer and Director. In the past six years at Batchelor Institute Kathryn combined her passions for teaching, education, performance and First Nations perspectives and history and taught the Institute’s Common Units, Public Communication and Telling Histories; a job she describes as one of the best in the world.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Celebrating and strengthening First Nations knowledge and worldviews through ‘education.’

She submitted her PhD in February 2014 and thoroughly enjoyed the process of applying theory to everyday occurrences.
Kathryn is an early career researcher and is beginning the journey of documenting and reflecting on her teaching practice, life experiences and little pieces of knowledge picked up along the way.

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

International and National paper on the NT Liquor Act 2007 specifically section 95b and the Stronger Futures legislation 2010 as they apply to Alice Springs, NT
(co-written with P. Gibson et al)
A refereed journal article based on my methodology chapter that will advance Indigenous standpoint theories towards an inclusive First Nations perspectives methodology
A paper on the period of 2004/2005 at Batchelor Institute that applies theories of Whiteness and Privilege with a new theoretical concept of interdiction
A paper on the Common Units delivered at Batchelor Institute from 1999 – 2011 exploring concepts of a possessive investment in ignorance that is designed to maintain white privilege
A paper on Assimilative mimicry (Bhabha 2007) and how it applies to a First Nations context in Australia
A paper on how racist ideologies informed by Australian policy, historical and current infiltrate a First Nations educational Institution
A paper on the power of performance and ceremony to re-write tropes of First nations incompetence and negligence. The pathologising of Aboriginal people and culture as being constantly negative will be critiqued with an evidence-based paper on the power of celebrating First Nations culture publically.
With Dr Eva McRae-Williams and Dr Henk Huijser – a discussion paper on the keynote addresses at the AIATSIS conference and how they apply to Batchelor Institute
With Katie Maher and Ali Baker, “Three old friends, three unique perspectives: how we all ended up here, stories of success, survival and non-combative arguments and debates around Aboriginal education”
With Sue Gilbey – “Place making and the politics of just being?”
With Barbara Shaw, Hilary Tyler, Carmen Robinson, Alison Furber, Stacia Chester, Que Kenny, Marlene Hodder and the Intervention Rollback Action Group “When the grassroots mobilise: action in Alice Springs 2014”

BOOKS

The development of a book called ‘Privileging First Nations Knowledge in Education: Looking Back to Move Forward”
The eventual development of a book “First Nations resistance and survival, through and from education and policy”